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Velociryx
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of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999
time: 05:22
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All this nit-picking is well and good to a point, but the central fact remains that the US government was structured in a way that was, at its inception, unlike anything that had come before it. To pen down a bill of rights for citizens, to proclaim equality for all (true, that "all" was selective at the outset...no denying that, but since then, the sheer flexibility of the system--another inherent strength--has evolved to become much more inclusive. Is there anyone who would disagree with this?)....unheard of! To turn our back on the divine right of kings and royal bloodlines? Egad!
So yes...I would say that there are some pretty significant differences.
Does this make the US of A the "best"? I would contend that BEST is far too subjective a term to have any real relevance. Best by what set of criterion?
Likewise, the USofA has the largest economy in the world. This is not a matter of conjecture or debate, but an economic fact of life. Still, this does not constitute a notion of "best" (though it does point to an indication that folks in the USA have a certain knack for using and growing capital...if not, we certainly could not have grown and surpassed our European fathers inside the short span of 200 years).
-=Vel=-
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optimus2861
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Halifax, NS
Nov 2000
time: 01:22
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Hate to throw fuel on the fire, but... according to the UN's quality-of-life rankings, the USA doesn't even make the top 5  . For 2002, the top 10 nations in a composite measure of life expectancy, education, and income per person were:
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Belgium
5. Australia
6. The United States of America
7. Iceland
8. The Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Finland
Note that this does not imply "best" or "better" in any respect, as the differences between the measurements are in some instances miniscule, and of course it is based on a specific set of data. Choose a different set, and you'd get different results. This list is well-known in Canada, as we topped it from 1995-2000, and our federal government made mileage out of it, to the UN's chagrin.
source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020724/6/nt9i.html
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Comrade Tassadar
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quote:
Originally posted by SKILORD
By an unofficial recount he actually won.
.... i think |
Depends on which recount you want to believe.
Anyway, I predict in about 30 years....well, lets just say most americans wont quite be as arrogent as they are today. We'll see what happens.
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Traianvs
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Belgium, land of plenty (corruption)
Jan 2000
time: 06:22
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Yes, scandinavia usually is a few years ahead of the rest of western europe, for example, we are going to adopt the rule now that the lights of your car have to be switched on night AND day (when you're driving of course  ), but scandinavian ppl have this for quite some time already!! I also think they do the most efforts to help the environment, unlike Belgium, who is the largest polluter of the north sea, and it only has 64 km of shoreline  , and a weak 10 million ppl - really a shame for Belgium..
One also has to admit the Americans have a way to handle things, 2 centuries ago America was quite disorganized and all, but look at it now, strongest power of the world, but that's also because America was clean untouched land... here in Europe life wasn't pretty, no opportunities for something new, the 'Ancient Régime' held everything tight... with later the bourgeoisie everything was just the same - no opportunities to grow... things have greatly improved after WWII, such as the right for women to vote (in Belgium only in 1948!! ) and so on...
Still, Belgium (or rather Flanders, which is the place where the wealth is situated, the Walloons are doing rather poorly lately) is a fine place to live in, after all, we have the best social system in the world (although many ppl take disadvantage of the system, but that is inavoidable), we are #1 in the world for health care, and education in flanders is amongst the best in the world (for Maths for example, only Japan and S-Korea do better than us  ) we have very few beggars here, beggars are usually illegal ppl anyway, last time i was in the US, all thosebaggas were crawlin up my ass for a dollar, damnit, i wouldn't wanna get sick in the US- no income, huge medical costs etc....horrible! 
we are however #1 in corruption in Europe, together with Italy (if you have Berlusconi in mind, you understand )
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el freako
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Bristol, European Union
Oct 1999
time: 05:22
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A link to that data is here - also note that the data for the US is a bit old, that table reports the old growth of 9.8% between 1998 and 2001 the latest revised figures from the US's Bureau of Economic Analysis shows growth of only 8.3% between those years.
That 'at 1995 prices' is using the 1995 exchange rates vs the dollar - the current prices is using the current exchange rate.
However neither are very good for international comparisons - it's far better to use
Purchasing Power Parities - this was the data I quoted earlier.
Last edited by el freako on 17-09-2002 at 18:30
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16-09-2002 18:40
1$= 40 franks
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